Ok, so I read the suspension FAQ for n00bs and its says this:

I am getting TRD springs and shocks installed on sunday and I know I will need the alignment. My question is, can I wait till like Monday afternoon to get the alignment done?

I had springs installed on my Firebird a few years back and had it aligned at the place where they were installed. The guy there said to come back after they had settled for a second alignment, roughly 500 or 5,000 miles he said, I forget which at this point.

Are two alignments neccesary or just one?

 

One should be sufficient. I don't think most springs "settle" as much now as older stuff. So there shouldn't be too much waiting involved. I'd suggest about a week or so.

 

So wait about a week after install and then get the alignment done? Another quick question about that... I am going on a trip to OC maryland the following weekend. Not having them aligned won't f-up the car for that will it?

Thanks ack154

 

I think you should be fine as long as it's not a really long trip. Though it's hard to say anyways b/c there's no way to be sure how bad the alignment would be after the install.

 

The trip itself will be 306mi round trip (153 down, 153 back). Plus an random drivig around while there. Plus driving between time of install and the trip for work and such, which I would esitmate out to be roughly ~200mi. So roughly, about 500 miles will be driven in the 7 days following the install.

 

I really think you'd be fine. Even if your alignment is off (which it will be) you shouldn't have any significant wear from 500 miles.

The biggest problem I had after lowering was that I had a lot of "toe in" on the rear. So the front of my rear wheels pointed in towards the middle of the car. I had some negative camber too but the toe ate away the inner line of my tires. But I waited months to get an alignment... on purpose (turned out a to be a good way to kill the stock tires!). I think you'll be OK for a week.